The United States remains the only country in the world that picks its national running teams using binding, cutthroat trials. Although other countries have events called trials, selectors still play a role in determining which athletes make national teams. It's uniquely American to "self-select" for the Olympic Games or World Championships, a brutally fair and unforgiving system that plays no favorites.

"It's one of the toughest teams to make, I think, internationally," said 2014 USA 7-mile champion Sean Quigley, who finished 19th and thus didn’t make the Worlds team.

In the open men's race, Chris Derrick[3] earned his third consecutive title by his widest margin yet (30 seconds), and is eager to don the Team USA singlet again. He finished tenth at the last World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 2013, and was part of the silver medal American team.

"I think this is just a chance for the U.S. to show off the depth that has accrued over the past few years," Derrick said. "Obviously, going back 10, 15 years or whatever, we've only had a handful of top guys. But I think we have incredible depth as a nation right now, probably only second to Kenya and Ethiopia. I think there is just a nice chance to demonstrate that. I take a lot of pride in being part of something of a resurgence in U.S. distance running."

Ryan Vail[4], who finished fourth on Saturday's race, making his fifth USA team for World Cross, agreed. He finished 17th in Bydgoszcz two years ago.

"I love running World Cross," Vail said. "I was really worried about the altitude so I wanted to play it conservative, sort of feel my way into the team. At the end, I knew I was really clear in the six."

But two of America's best cross country runners, Dathan Ritzenhein[5] and Ben True[6], won't be running in Guiyang, even though they competed in Boulder. Ritzenhein, who has won the national cross country title three times and was a bronze medalist as a junior at World Cross in 2001, is preparing for the Boston Marathon[7] on April 20. He raced in Boulder to support the community where he spent four years going to college and also to try to win his fourth title. In a performance that he said "hurt really bad," he finished third.

"I won't be running World Cross Country no matter what," he told reporters before the race. "It's only three weeks before Boston. It's just not going to happen. If it were a different location, probably. But, just three weeks before, a trip to China is probably not going to be the best for me."

True, who was the highest finisher for Team USA at World Cross in 2013, when he finished sixth, had a rare off-day in Boulder. He ran with the leading group early in the race, but despite training in Boulder ahead of the championships to get accustomed to the altitude, faded to 11th. He had said before the race that he wanted to return to World Cross and help elevate the profile of the sport in the United States.

"I think a lot of people two years ago saw the result and said it was the conditions [muddy and cold] which allowed us to get the silver medal," True said at a press conference. "The African runners weren't able to properly run through the mud. So, it would be nice to show it wasn't a fluke."

With Ritzenhein not accepting his team spot, seventh place Andrew Colley made the team along with second place Bobby Curtis, fifth place Patrick Smyth, and sixth place Maksim Korolev, who will be the only collegiate athlete on the American senior team this year.

On the women's side, all of the top-six finishers—Laura Thweatt, Mattie Suver, Jen Rhines, Brie Felnagle, Sara Hall[8] and Elaina Balouris— said they would take their team spots. Thweatt and Suver live in Colorado (in Boulder and Colorado Springs, respectively), and said that making the team for World Cross was their top priority for their winter seasons.

Forty-year-old Jen Rhines[9] finished third, qualifying for her seventh World Cross team (she last competed in those championships in 2002). The three-time Olympian put in a five-week stint at altitude in Mammoth Lakes, California, before Saturday’s race and said that she wanted to make at least one more national team before she retired.

"So, I really put in the work because I had a big goal," said Rhines, who got up to 90 miles per week in training. "I was really nervous coming in here. I hadn't put that pressure on myself in a long time. This was really stressful."

The top six finishers in the junior races also qualified for World Cross. (A junior athlete must be 19 or younger, and cannot turn 20 by the end of the year.) Included on the junior women's team will be 16-year-old Katie Rainsberger of Colorado Springs, Colorado, whose mother, Lisa, won the Boston Marathon in 1985.